MORGANTOWN - There certainly will be more than two players making an impact Saturday afternoon when West Virginia plays Marshall at Mountaineer Field.
MORGANTOWN - There certainly will be more than two players making an impact Saturday afternoon when West Virginia plays Marshall at Mountaineer Field.
It's going to be hard, though, to overlook the significance of Noel Devine and Darius Marshall. They are, after all, two of the top three rushers in the country.
West Virginia's Devine, despite being limited to 91 yards in a win at Syracuse on Saturday, was still named the Big East's offensive player of the week for his efforts. And while his rushing average slipped from 135 to 126.2 yards per game, he still ranks third nationally.
That's one spot below Marshall, the Thundering Herd junior whose 147.4-yard average is less than a yard shy of national leader Ryan Matthews of Fresno State. Marshall was tops in the country before he, too, slipped slightly last week with a 98-yard performance in a win over Tulane.
"If you like I-formation or spread formation, you'll see Darius Marshall and Noel Devine big in this game plan for both these universities,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said Monday. "I just like watching good players play. They're both very, very good players, very talented.''
But they are a bit different. Devine is just 5-foot-8 and 176 pounds. Marshall isn't a big back by any means, but at 5-10 and 190 pounds he fits the mold of a college running back more so than his counterpart.
"First of all they're winners. They're competitors,'' Stewart said. "They run very, very hard for their size. Darius is bigger than Noel. Noel is a strong 176 pounds and Darius looks to me like he's about 190, 195. He's a little bit bigger.
"They're both team energizers. Just put the ball in their hands.''
Both teams have done just that, although the Herd tends to do it slightly more. Marshall has carried the ball 111 times in five games - he sat out MU's opener because of off-season troubles - and averages 6.6 yards per carry. In his three seasons, the Georgian has carried 458 times and gained 2,463 yards, a 5.4-yard career average.
Devine has carried 95 times this season with the same 6.6-yard average. The junior, who got only limited carries as a true freshman with Steve Slaton in the offense, has 374 career carries for 2,547 yards, a staggering 6.8-yard average.
But they also do more than run the football.
MORGANTOWN - There certainly will be more than two players making an impact Saturday afternoon when West Virginia plays Marshall at Mountaineer Field.
It's going to be hard, though, to overlook the significance of Noel Devine and Darius Marshall. They are, after all, two of the top three rushers in the country.
West Virginia's Devine, despite being limited to 91 yards in a win at Syracuse on Saturday, was still named the Big East's offensive player of the week for his efforts. And while his rushing average slipped from 135 to 126.2 yards per game, he still ranks third nationally.
That's one spot below Marshall, the Thundering Herd junior whose 147.4-yard average is less than a yard shy of national leader Ryan Matthews of Fresno State. Marshall was tops in the country before he, too, slipped slightly last week with a 98-yard performance in a win over Tulane.
"If you like I-formation or spread formation, you'll see Darius Marshall and Noel Devine big in this game plan for both these universities,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said Monday. "I just like watching good players play. They're both very, very good players, very talented.''
But they are a bit different. Devine is just 5-foot-8 and 176 pounds. Marshall isn't a big back by any means, but at 5-10 and 190 pounds he fits the mold of a college running back more so than his counterpart.
"First of all they're winners. They're competitors,'' Stewart said. "They run very, very hard for their size. Darius is bigger than Noel. Noel is a strong 176 pounds and Darius looks to me like he's about 190, 195. He's a little bit bigger.
"They're both team energizers. Just put the ball in their hands.''
Both teams have done just that, although the Herd tends to do it slightly more. Marshall has carried the ball 111 times in five games - he sat out MU's opener because of off-season troubles - and averages 6.6 yards per carry. In his three seasons, the Georgian has carried 458 times and gained 2,463 yards, a 5.4-yard career average.
Devine has carried 95 times this season with the same 6.6-yard average. The junior, who got only limited carries as a true freshman with Steve Slaton in the offense, has 374 career carries for 2,547 yards, a staggering 6.8-yard average.
But they also do more than run the football.
"You know what else they'll do? They'll block,'' Stewart said. "When I see a youngster go out and block for his buddy or for his quarterback or if there's a broken play and he comes back and gets a block, I like to see that. That means the kid's a hell of a football player and I think both those young men are just that. They're two fine football players.''
Devine's signature game this season was a 220-yard outburst against Colorado on a Thursday night, nationally televised game. Over his career, Devine has five runs of 70 yards or more. That's more than any active player in the country. He ran for 1,289 yards last season.
Marshall had been over 100 yards in every game this season before the Tulane game and had 203 in a win at Memphis and 186 against Bowling Green. He ran for 1,095 yards last season.
In Devine's two games against the Herd, he has carried 19 times for 203 yards, more than 10 yards per carry. He rushed 14 times for 127 yards in last year's 27-3 WVU win.
Marshall has also played in each the last two games between the teams, carrying 27 times for 131 yards.
Stewart was reminded of West Virginia's 2006 game against the Herd, one in which current NFL standouts Slaton and Ahmad Bradshaw were the central figures. Slaton ran for 210 yards that day and Bradshaw 75 in a 42-10 West Virginia win, but Bradshaw still left an impression.
"I remember our linebacker came over and said, 'Coach, it hurts to hit him,' '' Stewart said of Bradshaw. "That's why he's playing on Sunday for the Giants and playing very, very well. That's the same thing you're going to see from Darius and Noel some day. I believe both will play in the league. This is going to be a heck of a game for those two.''
BRIEFLY: West Virginia announced Monday that its home game with Connecticut a week from Saturday has been picked up by ESPNU. The game will kick off at noon. That means of the remaining six games beyond this Saturday, all but the one with Louisville are guaranteed either national or major-network regional broadcast slots.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
Post a comment
Let's Goooooooooooooo Mounties!!
And for the record, I agree - we haven't faced a good defense all year...and next week, I'll be saying the same thing.
The game may start off close/rocky but WVU will win this game by more than 2 touchdowns. All you MU fans should consider this a win if you loose by less than 2 touch downs.
The only reason this game bugs me is that once MU gets thrashed again we will start hearing about all the excuses (WVU gets more money, has more sway with the governer/state, blah blah blah).